Category: Applying For Jobs

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The résumé Black Hole as many people like to describe the mildly horrible experience of having their résumé thrashed for lacking the requisite skills or professional appeal to fill a role is every job-seekers nightmare.

Nobody wants that but worse still, most candidates are at crossroads on deciding whether to move on with applications or wait to snag an interview. Thats why most job-seekers just play safe by submitting applications in different places. And the current state of the economy having 5000 job-seekers apply for a job, with fewer companies hiring, its only a better alternative to end the job-search misery.

In the first week of February this year, one of Americas popular job sites, The ladders, launched a job search tool called Scout to allow its 5 million subscribers measure their value against other applicants; which means that subscribers get to decide whether or not to apply for a job in a matter of seconds.

5 days ago, a report was released on another research The Ladders carried out using Scout and an eye-tracking software showing that job seekers rarely spend time checking out a job description in detail before they push out applications.

Many job seekers are guilty of this act.

The research showed that most candidates only made applications after a few glances and a hasty conclusion that the job is a fit for them; they end up choosing the wrong job; hence get no response from recruiters.

The research also revealed that job seekers read job descriptions at the top but skim through the rest of the page.

Heres the thing: recruiters dont follow this principle of watch-my-back-and-give-me-a-pat-when-I-do-it-right because recruiters only have it as their job to hire the right candidate; they have bills piling and deadlines looming.

Statistics has it that only about 1000 recruiters make it while the rest struggle to get there and companies that hire candidates directly rarely think it necessary to inform unsuccessful candidates of their rather sorry plight. At least for the sheer thought that it is not news worth sharing in the first place.

A recruiter is not a mentor. Dont expect an outright yes, you did well or no you should be in the funny farm.

But recruiters are also humans, although you wont get the best of your job-search by waiting for someone to do the homework for you; you wont make any difference if you ride it solo either.

As part of your networking efforts, reach out to recruiters or prospective employers while you are preparing your application and use that avenue to sell yourself.

Getting a job is more about social skills  how much people like you and how well they think they can work with you- but your technical skills are as important too.

Whether or not your skills match a particular job, you still need to be sure you are not contributing to waste a recruiters time.

Perhaps you didnt get that interview call or you couldnt get the job because employers think you have not carefully done your job search.

The next time you see a job-opening;

Send in your application if you are sure your skills match the job description not if the title looks catchy.

If you are unsure, send a polite mail to a recruiter asking if he thinks your résumé matches with the open role.

And keep lines of communication open to stay top of mind for that recruiter the next time theres a job that matches your skills. An occasional mail or call will do.